BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday asked the people of Tripura to oust the Lal bhai government, as he accused the Left cadres of pocketing public funds meant for development.
He promised to make the State a model if his party were to be voted to power.
Mr. Shah led an eight-km roadshow and addressed meetings in which he sought votes for the State’s “transformation”.
Without naming Rahul Gandhi, he alleged that the Congress chief had put up candidates as ‘vote-katva’ (cutting into others’ votes) to help the CPI(M) government headed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to come back to power.
The Congress was the main Opposition party until the last Assembly polls, but has seen a serious depletion in its ranks with many of its leaders, including MLAs, joining the BJP.
“The government of ‘Lal bhai’ and its cadres have looted Tripura for 25 years in the name of development... A BJP government is bound to come. It won’t be merely a change of MLAs or government but will usher in its transformation,” Mr. Shah said.
The Left government, he said, was made in the name of the poor but poverty increased in its 25 years of rule and the number of unemployed youths rose to 7.33 lakh from 25,000 during the period.
A BJP government will give employment to every household, he said.
Taking on Mr. Sarkar for his charge that the Centre had not done much for the State’s development, the BJP chief reeled out the names of a number of central schemes and noted that it had released ₹25,396 crore to Tripura under the 14th Finance Commission against ₹7,283 crore it had got under the 13th Finance Commission.
“Where has all this extra ₹18,000 crore gone? It has gone into pockets of Communist cadres. I dare Sarkar to give an account of this money in his public meeting,” Mr. Shah said at the rally.
Raising the party’s slogan, Chalo Paltai (Let’s change the government), Mr. Shah sought the Left’s ouster from the State.
